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The GMD Archives — The Mouse who wanted to be a Rat
center|650px Last time, we took a look at the history of Basil's design. Now what about some Ratigan-related history ? Like Basil and Dawson, Ratigan is a proeminent character in Eve Titus's original books. He is described as "the brains of the mouse underworld", a "brilliant criminal". He is, naturally, more or less inspired of professor James Moriarty from A. C. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories, although the inspiration here is far less direct than from Basil to Sherlock Holmes or Dawson and Watson. Now, I don't own any of the books, which have been out-of-print since a very long time, although a coincidence makes that I'm in possession of the text and illustrations of four chapters of Basil and the Pygmy Cats, with their original P. Galdone illustrations, and a brief preview of the first book. That's enough, once coupled with Wikipedia informations, to get those pieces of information: *Ratigan's full name is Professor Padraic Ratigan. *He appears at least in Basil and the Lost Colony, Basil and the Pygmy Cats, Basil in Mexico. *However, the case that most probably served as the inspiration for The Great Mouse Detective is Basil of Baker Street, the first book of the series, about the kidnapping of two young twin girls. *Pr. Ratigan is a mouse, not a rat. He is frequently mistaken for a rat because of his great size and ugliness, but that's really a mistake. *Pr. Ratigan takes over the throne of an Indian/Arabian country known as Bengistan. From the "Padraic Ratigan" piece of information, I think we can conclude that Ratigan is supposed to be of Irish ascendance. His three appearances out of five books showed obviously that he was Basil's archenemy. And his "maharadjah of Bengistan" role may be the original inspiration for him trying to overthrow the crown of England. inspiration can be visual too, as we'll see in the post-scriptum Anyway, I don't have any information about Ratigan's regular outfit, but for some reason the animators decided to go with purple as his main color. Why ? Purple is traditionally the color of wacky evil at Disney. Mad Madam Mim and the Cheshire Cat are good exemples. Purple is also the color for fancy gentlemen. Which Ratigan obviously i… pardon me, pretends to be. But what I can tell from the unique Galdone illustration of Ratigan is that he's big, but not fat. He's highsized, which is different. First Ratigan is a slender brown mouse/rat (I don't know when the "mouse looking like a rat" idea was dropped for the "rat pretending to be a mouse" one — maybe after this concept art was done, maybe before) dressed in purple. With a top hat, already. center|500px This is a somewhat interesting concept, but not quite like the final Ratigan. I don't know who did it, I don't know when, although this actually looks like a storyboard drawing more than a concept art. This si made clearer with the other piece of concept art for Slender Ratigan: center|500px This has good odds to be a storyboard page for the Devilish Trap scene. What's Ratigan holding in his hand ? I've got my theory, which we'll see next time. For now, we focus on Ratigan. …as we see this piece, I become more and more convinced that he's already supposed to be a rat here, just a slender one. Notice sharp teeth… …and also how he's two times bigger than Basil ''! This Ratigan with a long muzzle can also be spotted in the ministoryboard, under the form of a previous version of the portrait. center|300px ''This Ratigan is not a fancy gentleman. He's got a madman look, a dishevelled hair and his hat is shadowing his face. Actually, he looks a bit like a fox. NOTHING like our Ratigan portrait. How did we get from this one to the current Ratigan ? I really don't know. It seems that some element is missing, because we slip directly to two concepts resembling closely the final Ratigan. Obviously, they started all over again, keeping only the top hat. If the "rat" idea may not have been there yet with Slender Ratigan, those two obviously show a rat. And I don't know in which order they were created. Both of them feature elements of the final Ratigan, but none of them seem to draw any inspiration from the other. Here they are: center Nobody quite knows who this female mouse is, but the most probable theory is that she's Olivia Flaversham in an early draft where she was aroudn 18 years old, and romantically interested in Basil. This Ratigan, who has the body structure of the real one but a slightly different head, is apparently trying to seduce her against her will. center As for this one, he has the muzzle of the real Ratigan, but is significantly shorter and fatter. Anyway, combining those elements, was created this, which is very close to the final model of the character: center|600px Something's missing from the story, though. According to interviews, in-between concepts had a Ratigan looking much like the one we have, but with smaller and less round eyes, and a red tie instead of purple-and-pink. Some Alice-in-Wonderland fan in the crew decided to include a tribute to the Cheshire Cat in Ratigan, hence the tie, Ratigan's grin when seen from the front, the yellow glowing eyes, and the purple circling them. center|500px center|500px Post-Scriptum: a word on King Ratigan Here is Galdone's illustration for a scene where King Ratigan talks with Basil and Dawson, whom he has emprisonned in a dungeon. center The scene itself could be linked to the moment just before Ratigan puts Basil and Dawson in his devilish mousetrap. But Ratigan's outfit is what interests us for now. Does it seem familiar ? Let's have a look at a(n anonymous as usual) concept art for King Ratigan in The great mouse detective. center|500px …what ? Besides the "Ratigan-in-King-clothing", you don't think the resemblance is that striking ? Granted, both the coat and the crown look pretty different, but the mere idea that Ratigan would dress up like a buffonesque king must have came from somewhere. And what if we have a look at the less formal king costume he wears during his villain song ? center|300px Hahaha ! This time we do have something. The crown is the same (even the same number of pikes: five. Count them). The coat is worn without belt or medails, looking more like Book Ratigan's. In one word, we just got our eyes on a direct piece of inspiration ! Catégorie:The Great Mouse Detective Archives